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Boone School Resource Officer to be discontinued

By Jon Lloyd

Staff Writer

Bill Skare, Boone police chief and the city’s public safety director, announced at Monday night’s city council meeting that the Boone Community School District (BCSD) will not be funding the position of School Resource Officer for the next school year.

“It appears at this time there’ll be no funding for the School Resource Officer for the school year 14-15,” Skare said. “We’ll continue to communicate with the schools. I anticipate Luke (Nelson, city administrator) will have a meeting with Mr. (Brad) Manard (BCSD superintendent) at some point.”

In an agreement between the City of Boone and the school district, Boone Police Officer Dave Powers was assigned the duty of SRO, beginning in the 2011-12 school year. The contract was for three years. Powers spent time in the high school, middle school and elementary school.

“Does that mean, I have to ask, we’re not putting an officer in there then, are we?” Mayor John Slight asked.

“Actually that’s something that will be worked out,” Skare said. “I guess the thing I’ll say tonight is the absolute number-one priority of the Boone Police Department is the safety of those kids. And we’ll proceed accordingly.”

“It’s always been a shared thing, and now all of a sudden it’s in our laps,” Slight said of the funding for the position, which was initially divided 75-25 between the two entities, with the school district paying the larger amount.

Councilwoman Shari Gillespie, Second Ward, asked Skare if the school district gave a reason for its decision. Skare said that Manard and Nelson discussed the matter.

“It certainly is something that is of importance to them,” Nelson said. “Although part of what they’re doing is they’re trying to balance between having that SRO there but also focusing on education and the limited amount of dollars, much like the situation here. Unfortunately a number of cuts that they’re doing, one of them is the SRO.”

During the council comments period, At-large Councilman Gary Nystrom said, “Bill and Luke, I know you guys worked really hard on this SRO. I’m really disappointed that our school district couldn’t put a step forward to try to work with us. I know we were willing to do that, and I think it’s a travesty that that isn’t happening. We’ve worked with that school for many years on various things, given them things, done whatever. All that aside, the bottom line is the safety for the kids, and we’re willing to try to do something that appears to me, unless something changes, that there is no movement on that side.”

Slight said that he “totally agreed” with Nystrom, adding “it’s an absolute shame.”

First Ward Councilman Fenner Stevenson said, “I do, too. I couldn’t believe this was happening, in this day and age that they couldn’t find…be able to do something for safety of our kids. Very important.”

Nelson said that he and Skare had “great discussions” and if there were any other possibilities, there is interest on the council in general and with funding they would continue to work on it.

On Wednesday, the school district issued a statement regarding the SRO position, firstly stating it appreciated the Boone Police Department’s (BPD) professionalism and support for providing public safety resources and services.

For the 2011-12 school year, the BPD and the school district collaborated to bring an SRO - Powers - to the district’s schools through a three-year agreement. The district agreed to fully fund the SRO using funds from the Iowa Department of Education’s (DOE) Drop-out Prevention funding, according to the statement. However, the DOE disallowed funding for SRO’s. The school district “fulfilled the three-year contract shifting the cost to instructional funding resources.”

Powers’ duties as a SRO, the district stated, were to “provide a conduit of communication, support and service” to the BCSD. In the agreement’s job description, 75 percent of Powers’ duties were related to drop-out prevention, including serving as a liaison officer with parents, investigating incidences on and off school property, maintaining daily contact with students at risk of dropping out, providing law enforcement counseling and serving as a school truancy officer.

According to the district, it agreed to pay for 100 percent of the time Powers spent performing SRO duties.

“This was 75 percent of the total annual officer salary and benefits,” the statement said. “The City of Boone paid the additional 25 percent of the cost for summer and non-school related duties.”

In the first year of the agreement, the BCSD paid $61,231.50, or 75 percent, of the annual $81,642 officer salary and benefits, according to the district’s statement. In the second year, the school district paid $63,608.25, or 75 percent, of the $84,811 annual salary and benefits.

For the third and final year of the agreement, the city and the school district agreed the district “would pay $60,000, or 62.8 percent, of the annual cost of $95,570,” the statement said. “When discussions regarding a SRO began in 2010, the annual officer salary and benefits cost $73,711.82. Since then, the annual cost of this position has increased 29.6 percent to $95,570. The current three-year SRO contract will be completed at the end of the 2013-14 school year.”

The district’s statement noted that since 2009 “the City of Boone has reduced its full time employees from 83 to 65,” its emergency services general fund “was reduced by over 11 percent” and its overall general fund was “reduced by approximately 10 percent. The Mayor and City Council continue to reinforce the need for the City to operate in the most-cost effective way.”

The district also pointed out that student enrollment has declined and “low allowable growth” has significantly affected instructional funding.

“The Board of Education has strived to achieve the district mission of ‘promoting academic and extra-curricular excellence,’ while attempting to balance the district’s fiscal responsibility to the taxpayers,” the statement said.

The district noted it reduced and realigned programs and staff, eliminated 25 teaching positions, reduced support staff and “realigned the administration.”

“Funding for 2014-15 will likely result in the reduction of an additional three-four teachers, a high school counseling position, as well as other employee reductions,” the district’s statement said.

In November, the district requested a reduction of Powers’ “liaison service” from 40 to 30 hours per week for the 190-day school year, according to the statement. Noting the SRO’s duties benefit both the district and police department, the statement said, “therefore, the BCSD proposal paid for 75 percent of the cost of time spent performing SRO duties.”

“This is 40 percent of the total annual salary and benefits of the officer who performs joint duties serving as a SRO and a Boone police officer,” the statement said. “The City of Boone responded on Nov. 15, 2013 with a draft proposal increasing the portion of the SRO cost paid by the school district back to the original contract obligating the district to pay 75 percent of the officer annual salary and benefits.”

No other offers were presented, the statement said.

At its Dec. 17 meeting, the BCSD Board of Education discussed the SRO agreement, noted negotiations for the position were continuing and the agreement would renew “as is” without board action by Jan. 1.

The board unanimously voted to terminate the agreement ending June 30.

In a Dec. 18 letter to Nelson and Skare, the board said that it “looks forward to further discussions in hopes that a cooperative agreement may be finalized for the School Resource Officer position in 2014-15.”

Editor’s note: Other city council discussions and actions taken on Monday night’s agenda will be in the Boone News-Republican’s Saturday edition.